The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Friday, June 17, 2011

RBA not intervening in the FX market (chart)

According to TDS (noting that their alumnus is now the PM's eco advisor):

"In yesterday’s RBA bulletin, the monthly ‘RBA foreign exchange transactions” update was released. The number for May was $A601m and is the blue bar in the chart. This is little different to the $A570m of the month before, and is well within the monthly transactions that the RBA performs on behalf of the Government: after all it is the banker for the government. These transactions represent bills that need to be paid for offshore entities/personnel etc and on average accounts for around $A300-600m per month...it’s business as usual for the RBA and the AUD. The Bank may trade well by buying low and selling high, but the Bank was not intervening, nor attempting to send a signal on monetary policy by engaging in a net FX transaction of $A601m last month."

at 2:01 PM